10 of the Cheapest Wedding Favours
This post may contain Affiliate Links
Wedding favours, to many, are an essential part of their big day. But are they really worth spending money on? Do people actually take them home? In this post, I look at some of the Cheapest Wedding favours you could opt for if you’re on a tight budget for your big day.
While it’s been a few years now since my own big day, I still remember the stress in the run-up to our wedding. We took on a huge amount of DIY and if I’m honest, I do regret not spending a little bit more money and having less to worry about.
However, at the end of the day, I got to marry my man, despite all the things that went wrong and our guests really enjoyed our day.
There are lots of different points of view when it comes to wedding favours – some see them as a must-have – others see them as utterly pointless. If you’re a little bit on the fence or would like to provide something but not spend a fortune, these are my suggestions for the cheapest wedding favours.
The Cheapest Option For Getting Married
10 of the Cheapest Wedding Favours
1. No favours: The Cheapest Wedding Favours of All
Of course, this is the absolute cheapest option and being a frugal and thrift blog I couldn’t not mention it.
Just because wedding favours are traditional, it doesn’t mean you have to do them. It’s worth taking a look at your wedding budget as a whole to see whether you can comfortably afford them or whether there are things you would rather spend that money on.
Also look at what else you are providing during your wedding – things like a sweet table or chocolate fountain, even if only in the evening could count as a wedding favour.
2. Second Cheapest Wedding Favours: Sugared Almonds
Sugared almonds are a traditional wedding favour plus they are cheap and easy to get hold of.
Five sugared almonds are traditionally given as wedding and these are meant to re favours to represent the following; wealth, health, happiness, fertility and long life. There are around 250 sugared almonds in one kilo – meaning you’d get around 50 wedding favours if bought in this quantity. Based on the prices listed below it would cost around £25 to make sugared almonds wedding favours in organza bags for 100 guests – roughly 25p each.
However, lots of folks may not like them so there is the possibility you’ll end up with loads left.
You’ll also need to buy some sort of bag or box to put them in which will increase the cost a little.
Overall costs will, of course, depend on the size of your wedding party but these can easily be colour coordinated to tie in with a theme or wedding colours.
- 1kg Sugared Almonds (£9.99)
- 3kg Sugared Almonds (£27.99)
- 100 Organza bags (£5.88)
- 60 White Cotton Bags (£9.99)
All of the above have Free delivery with Amazon Prime. If don’t have it you can sign up for a free trial here.
3. Love Hearts
Love hearts make lovely wedding favours and popular with children and adults alike. The best bit is they are super cheap to buy in bulk. 300 mini packets costs just £15.49 on amazon.
Three packets each for 100 wedding guests would come it at 15p per guest. Plus these could just be placed on tables, unlike the sugared almonds which have the additional costs of the organza bags.
For something a little more personal, these love hearts can have your married name and wedding date added to the outside wrapper.
They come with a minimum 12-month shelf life so could be ordered well in advance of your wedding.
4. Cheapest Wedding Favours: Popcorn
I love the idea of Popcorn as a wedding favour for lots of reasons. It’s very cheap and easy to make – even without a popcorn maker. It’s a lovely tie in if you’re having a film-themed wedding and I love the idea of people munching on popcorn during the speeches.
It can also be made, in bulk, ahead of time and it’s really easy to customize the flavours between the traditional sweet, salt and toffee and more outlandish like paprika popcorn and chilli or bacon. You can get lots of really fun coloured popcorn kernels too. The options are endless!
5. Homemade Fudge
Homemade fudge is easy and delicious to make and there are so many ways you could make it your own as a couple.
These include creating your own flavours together or making ‘his and her’ fudge with a layer for each of your favourites.
Using 400 grams of very cheap white chocolate and condensed milk you can make around 40 pieces of white chocolate fudge for around £2.50 (30p per 100g of white chocolate in Morrisons and £1.05 for their brand condensed milk).
It would, of course, need to be wrapped or boxed too but it’s still a very simple and cheap wedding favour to make.
Simply dice the white chocolate, add the condensed milk and place in a large bowl.
Microwave for two minutes (stopping after one minute to stir) and pour into a lined baking tray. It is at this point you can add extras like crushed Oreos or meringue pieces.
Refrigerate until needed.
Click here for a super easy Kinder Fudge Recipe.
6. Bubbles
Bubbles make a very simple and easy wedding favour and they are fairly cheap when bought in bulk too.
Plus bubble-blowing makes lots of very cute picture opportunities!
A pack of 96 wedding-themed Bubble wands are around £40 on Amazon.
These can be purchased well ahead of time with no worries about them going off or deteriorating which is perfect if you plan to buy a few things each month for your wedding.
However, you may want to consider the impact of so much plastic on the environment and opt for something different.
7. DIY Sweet Tables
Hiring a sweet cart from a company definitely isn’t a cheap way to go about doing favours, but creating your own definitely is. F
or our wedding, I created a Harry Potter Themed Sweet table which cost around £60 to make.
I have written about the cheapest places to buy sweets in bulk for a sweet table in this post, and where to get cheap Halloween sweets in this post.
We actually used a Groupon deal for the majority of our sweets, but also found that Costco was actually cheaper in some instances.
If making your own Sweet Table you might also need scoops and paper bags which can be found relatively cheaply on Amazon (see below).
If you want the traditional sweet table look if should be fair easy to put together a selection of glass jars either from recycling them or borrowing from friends and family.
8. Seed Packets
Seed packets make a lovely wedding favour, and a cheap one too, especially if you make them yourself.
Plain brown kraft envelopes could be personalized using stickers with your name and wedding date or you could buy prefilled printed envelopes instead.
9. Cheapest Wedding Favours: Homemade Jam
Homemade jam makes a lovely wedding favour and is cheap to make too, especially if you’re getting married in autumn when there is plenty of free fruit around such as blackberries and damsons.
Collect old jars from friends and family and the only things you’ll need to buy are labels, wax seals and some sugar.
You’ll also need a Jam thermometer but this could be used again and again or one could be borrowed from a friend or family member.
10. Budget Wedding Favours: DIY Wedding Hangover Kits
Probably the most expensive item on this list so not the absolute cheapest wedding favours, but something I made for my own wedding and where the items can be bought in bulk and then split between lots of people.
It’s also a little bit more fun and different than the other options mentioned.
These hangover kits are supposed to provide an antidote to the inevitable post-wedding hangover and include items such as water, paracetamol and breath mints.
They are relatively cheap to make and are bit more fun than sweets or chocolate. And of course, anyone can use them if they’ve not been drinking – we included some nice biscuits in ours and some sweets too as a little pick-me-up for guests the next day.
Here are some of the items you could use for a DIY Hangover Kit:
- Kraft Paper Bags
- Coloured Paper Bags to fit with a theme
- Bottled Water (this link is Amazon Pantry but supermarket would probably be a similar price)
- Individually wrapped Biscuits I’ve linked to Lotus Biscoff as an example as that’s what we used in ours, but these can also be found in Poundland etc.
- Mini Haribo bags
- Paracetamol – we were able to buy these in bulk at a cash and carry but if buying them individually you may need to make a few trips to different shops! Super cheap 30p packs are fine. We then cut them up and put two tablets person in each bag.
- Personalized labels to go on the bags.
You can find my full wedding hangover kits tutorial here; Wedding Hangover Kits
